GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Places

  • Chase Bank Parking Lot, Arroyo Crossing, Las Vegas

    When you live in an area for an extended period, mundane places begin to pick up the residue of various experiences.

    Last year (just around this time) we sold our little Mazda that we owned for nine years. I met the buyer outside of this bank because he was pulling his cash out from this branch.

    This year, I met my new tenant to sign the lease and transfer the rent and security deposits between our two accounts.

    Looking at it, you’d never anticipate major exchanges would happen in this little parking lot.

    Until it happens.

    Twice.

  • Therme Vals, Switzerland

    We once visited the Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals which is a free standing structure spa in the Swiss mountain side.

    Which is technically true.

    But its also in the middle of a little resort town and surrounded by boring old hotel towers on all sides.

    The photographs of the building are honest, this is an gorgeous structure, interior and exterior. But if the camera was shifted even a millimeter one direction or the other, the exterior shots wouldn’t look nearly as pretty.

    Razor Thin.

    Hanging out at the baths felt like standing on a mountain vista with litter in the foreground. However awesome the expanse, you are also burning a little mental energy to not think about the messy context.

  • Row, row, row your boat

    Over the years, I’ve given my daughter rides between the bedroom and laundry in a bin full of clothes.

    Yesterday I gave my boy his first ride in the bin.

    Halfway there, she saw him in her bin and decided to jump in as well.

    So the three of us did a couple loops around the house.

    My heart was full.

  • On the swings

    The kids were playing and laughing on the swings and the slides at the playground.

    Honestly, I think they were having just as much fun as if they were at an amusement park.

    Going on vacation is not cheap, but it is easy.

    The harder endeavor is finding such joy at home, day to day.

  • Me at Disneyland, twenty years later

    It has been at least two decades since visiting Disneyland.  I came before there even was a “California Adventure”, when this extravaganza was just an asphalt sea of parking.

    With two decades of architecture under my belt, the biggest change is the understanding that there were humans behind every bit of this manufactured world.  Nothing is to be taken for granted, neither the initial execution nor the continued maintenance of this idyllic universe.

    When you come as a kid, it just is.  When you come as an architect, it became.

    Yes, you notice the seams and the people behind the magick, but it is all the more impressive this way.

  • Disneyland, California

    We went for three days.

    It really is all that.

    The last time I had been in an amusement park was eighteen years ago at Six Flags, staffed with sullen teenagers manning the rides on a sultry summer afternoon.

    This was obviously not that.

    This was a bespoke experience to create the happiest place on earth. The theming, the architecture, the rides, the “cast”…not the prices…but just about everything else.

    It shows how money really starts to matter less to the audience once you completely stack rest of the deck in your favor.

    And yes, our girl was not happy about coming home to boring old Las Vegas.

  • Chalk lines of bygone years

    I was outside an old industrial park and I noticed a chalk line on the slab outside one of the storefront doors.

    It was about an inch back from face of the finish so I suspect it was the line of the studs when they did a refresh of the place. That would make this chalk line maybe two decades old?

    I’m certain it survived over the years because this tenant had two doors, and this door was typically locked and unused. But still, that’s a long time for a chalk line to hang around!

    Sometimes our most insignificant marks last much longer than we could imagine.

  • Lake Mead, Nevada

    Coming back from Overton, I took a slightly longer route via the Lake Mead Recreation area. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive.

    So this weekend we trundled up in the van and went back to visit.

    It did not disappoint, though partly because it is run down, with buildings from the late 70’s we’re heading towards a half century now, and the falling water levels certainly add to the air of disuse.

    I’ve always had a fondness for lonely roads and straggly architecture and this got both in spades.

  • Good places

    When you find one in this world, hang on to them tightly. There is a sacredness to such places.

    Time flows slowly but inexorably, inevitably such a place will transform and change, and it may no longer be the right place for you.

    Savor the moment, and count yourself fortunate.

  • Nevada State College Cafe

    I was about half an hour early to a meeting so I ended up grabbing a coffee at the campus cafe and surveyed the setting.

    It was good to contemplate the users of my building. I needed to descend from the fog of bureaucracy and see the young women and men who will be using this building.

    The people in that shop will be graduated by the time my building opens up, but the next round of future teachers of Clark County will be following right behind them.

    And not long after, my daughter and then my son will be following behind them.

    My two little ones are closer in age to these young folks than I am.

    How time has flown.